Before the board game came out, we used to play it with a dictionary. You can do this, too, by picking a word that no one knows the meaning of.

The original version of Balderdash listed weird words on a card with the real definitions on the other side. Here’s how you play:

The person who picked the word at play (the dasher) writes the real definition on a piece of paper.

Everyone else thinks up a definition (keep it hush-hush), writes it down, and gives it to the dasher, who then reads all the definitions out loud, including the real one. Of course, there’s always a joker who writes something hilarious that gets everyone laughing their heads off.

Once each player choses an answer, the real definition is revealed. Anyone who guesses it gets two points. If someone guesses your definition, you get a point for each person who guessed it. If nobody guesses the real definition, the dasher gets three points.

The latest version of Balderdash has some fun, new categories, which include:

“Peculiar People” – A name is given. Each player makes up something that the peculiar person was known for.

“Marvelous Movies” – You’re given the title of a movie and have to write a short summary telling what it’s about.

“Incredible Words” – There’s a whole world full of weird acronyms out there, and players can come up with some wild and convincing bluffs.

“Laughable Laws” – These are real laws on the books in one of the 50 states.

What Would You Do?

Some of my critique partners and I played a few rounds during the last half hour of our meeting on Saturday. Here’s how three of the rounds played out.

Would you like to take a stab at the real answer? And what would you have written down to try to fool us? (The answers are at the end of the three rounds.)

Round 1 – Under Peculiar People, the name on the card was “Gary Duda.” Who was Gary Duda?

Balderdash is a gas. If you can’t afford it, you can use a dictionary or research your own acronyms to use, look up some “B” movie titles, etc.

What? All alone and nobody to play the game with?

Get Your Characters to Play!

How about inviting your beloved characters who you know so well by now (hopefully). If not, this exercise can help you get to know them better.

Pull out one of the Balderdash cards. Read the categories and pick the one that sounds the most interesting, but don’t peek at the real answer.

Now write down a response for each character in their distinct voice. Close your eyes and picture how they’d react as they hear each definition being read aloud. If it’s something funny, do they giggle or cackle?

Are they a sore loser if they don’t get any points? Is Obby Noxious pigging out on the pretzels and talking with food in his mouth? What would they act like?

Then turn the card over and read the real answer just so you don’t leave yourself and your characters hanging.

Can you think up another variation or exercise to spark your writing creativity?

Regan told us how her friends and she sometimes put an acronym on Facebook, and they’ll all leave a funny or witty comment for what it stands for.

So, you can play this on Facebook or on a blog, like I’m doing with G.O.G.

Or how about a round of tweeting? Heather Kelly and Laura Pauling started The Twitter Game with fun hashtags. If you’re a tweeter, you might want to join them for more stress-relieving, creative fun.

Don’t forget to leave a comment about what G.O.G. stands for. I’ll have the answer for G.O.G. in my next blog!

Those are some great guesses, SuperB, but my G.O.G. is different than yours! I'm glad you had fun playing Balderdash, Wub2Write. Yes, we'll have to play again because Steve felt bad that he missed the meeting. And you only got a tiny flavor of the game by playing one round. So we'll do it again, maybe at Carol's Cantina get-together! George & Joey would like it, too! Thanks for your guess at G.O.G. Nope, that's not what it means! Haha!

Thanks, Carol. Yes, Balderdash is so much fun. Maybe we can play it at the Cantina get-together. A margarita or a beer will really get us going with some wild bluffing!Lisa, that's really something that you guessed fud correctly because of Elmer Fud! I wonder if that word had something to do with how he got that name? Yep, his famous words, "Hunting wabbits!" I love it! And, yes, you have to know your characters quite well to get each distinct voice down for a bluffing game!

Hi Sharon, Our kids grew up playing Balderdash, and they'll raise their kids playing it. It's one of our favorites. Kids come up with some great stuff!God of Games is a great guess, but it's not the G.O.G. I have in mind.

Lynn!Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging! So glad you finally started a blog! I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts. 😛 This looks like such a fun game. I wish I had more time to play!nutschellwww.thewritingnut.com

Hi Nutschell,Thanks for visiting my G.O.G. blog! Yes, it feels good to have a blog up and running. Maybe in a month I'll be ready to tackle Twitter, too!I hope you get a chance to play Balderdash sometime because it's the perfect game for writers, plus family and friends love it, too. Might make for a nice giveaway one of these days!